What is the heart?

What is the heart?

Parent & Teacher Guidance
What is the heart?

Every living person has one thing in common. We all have a heart! Without a heart, no one would be able to live.

  • The heart is a huge pump the size of a closed fist.
  • It's really a muscle.
  • The heart's job is to pump blood around the body.
  • It moves deoxygenated blood through the veins on to the lungs to receive oxygen before then pumping it into the arteries.
  • It is then the job of the arteries to move oxygen and nutrition to the body's tissue by carrying blood throughout the body.
  • The heart is located in the cavity next to the lungs and behind the chest bone.

 

Heart facts. The heart:

  • Is about the size of a pear
  • weighs about the same as two apples.
  • pumps blood so that it goes once around the body in about a minute.
  • beats 60 to 100 times per minute. The heart of a newborn baby beats between 130 and 160 times a minute.
  • beats about 100,000 times a day, and 2.5 billion times during your lifetime.

 

Heart disease

If someone eats too much fat, it builds up in the arteries. The heart has to work harder to pump the blood through them. Eventually, the person suffers from heart disease and may have a heart attack.

How to avoid heart disease:

  • exercise regularly – up to 30 minutes a day. The heart will beat harder and become stronger.
  • not eating too much fat – this will keep the arteries clear
  • healthy living – not smoking or taking drugs and not drinking too much alcohol.

 

How did the heart become a symbol of love?

People used to think that a person's soul lived in the heart. So, they thought a person made spiritual, moral, and emotional decisions in their heart.

Over the centuries, the heart became a symbol of love. The heart is usually red, a colour that conveys blood and also emotion and passion.

Glossary
Passion
Very strong feeling
Soul
The ‘Spirit’ of a person
Arteries
The vessels the blood passes through
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Saint Dwynwen

Llanddwyn Island, Anglesey

Saint Dwynwen

Dwynwen is the patron saint of Welsh lovers, and we celebrate her festival on 25 January.

She was one of the daughters of king Brychan in the fifth or sixth century.

One story tells how she walked across the Irish Sea because she was afraid of Maelgwn Gwynedd.

The most famous story about her is that she fell in love with Maelon Dafodrill. They became engaged, but Maelon broke the engagement and broke Dwynwen's heart at the same time. God punished Maelon by freezing him.

God then gave Dwynwen three wishes, and her wishes were:

  1. that Maelon should be unfrozen;
  2. that she should be allowed to listen to the prayers of anyone who was lovesick; and
  3. that she should be allowed to live alone as a nun on Llanddwyn Island.

St Dwynwen's well is on Llanddwyn Island and people believed that they would be healed there.

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CPR Instruction - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

CPR is an emergency treatment that tries to restart your heart and breathing when they have stopped. Click on the website to receive further information about the process of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

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Heart of Wales Line

The Heart of Wales Line is a spectacular rural railway between Swansea and Shrewsbury.

The Heart of Wales Line runs through dramatic scenery of mountains, forests, wild rivers, green meadows and pretty towns and villages across Shropshire in England, Powys, Carmarthenshire and the City and County of Swansea. There is a limited but regular train service along the line operated by Transport for Wales.

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What is fitness?

What exactly is fitness?

Does being able to run very far or lift a lot of weights in the gym mean you're fit? No. There are five elements to fitness, and the five elements need to be assessed to see what your level of fitness is:

  • Heart and lung endurance
  • Muscle strength
  • Muscle endurance
  • Body composition
  • Flexibility

Heart and lung endurance

What does this mean?

  • The ability of your heart and lungs to fuel your body while exercising for a period of time.

To improve your heart and lung endurance:

  • Choose activities that raise the heart rate safely for a period of time.
  • The activity does not have to be very active to improve endurance.
  • Start slowly, and gradually increase.

Muscle strength

What does this mean?

  • Your muscles’ ability to strive against something when you exercise.

To improve your muscle strength:

  • Choose activities that make your muscles work hard.

Muscle endurance

What does this mean?

  • Your muscles’ ability to carry on as you exercise without getting tired.

To improve your muscle endurance:

  • Choose activities where your heart and lungs work hard.

Body composition

What does this mean?

  • How much of the body is muscle, fat, bone, etc. Someone's weight on the scales may not change over a period of time, but the scales don't show how much of the body is fat, bones, etc.

To improve body composition:

  • Choose activities that burn fat and rebuild the muscles.

Flexibility

What does this mean?

  • Your joints ability to move. The more flexible your joints are, the less likely you are to have injuries.

To improve your muscle strength:

  • Choose activities that make your muscles stretch.
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Heartbeat

In unity there is strength

25th April 2018

Hundreds of high school pupils in Florida gathered today to form a giant heart shape on a football pitch as part of a protest to call for US gun laws to be changed. The protest was held after 17 staff members and pupils were shot dead and several others injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018. Nikolas Jacob Cruz, 19, a former pupil at the school, has been arrested following the tragedy.

Across the country, pupils walked out of their classes to demand stricter gun laws. They want greater restrictions on who can buy guns, while also calling for better mental health services.

Heart by heart

Their calls were backed by former president Barack Obama via a message on Twitter. President Trump also said in a tweet that 'nothing is more important than the safety of our children.'

Currently, a 21-year-old has the right to buy a handgun, but an 18-year-old can buy a rifle, such as the AR-15 used by the former pupil in Florida.

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Love in the world of birds

Love in the world of birds

In the world of birds, it is the male who makes all the effort!

There are several examples in the world of the birds where the male:

  • has bright feathers
  • dances to attract the hen
  • builds a large nest to impress the hen
  • beats its wings or snaps its beak to make a big noise.
  • gives a gift (e.g. kingfisher giving a fish) to the hen

The hen chooses the cock which:

  • has the brightest feathers
  • dances best
  • builds the largest nest
  • makes the most noise
  • gives her the biggest fish
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Diagram of the human heart

Doctor taking a patient's pulse

Defibrillator AED on wall in public space

Fitness tracker – watch / mobile phone

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CPR procedure - COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, you can still continue to learn and perform CPR using these simple steps.

Learning CPR is important, because you never know when you might need to use your skills.

By learning CPR and using your skills in an emergency, you're giving the person their best chance of survival.

Resus Council UK

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Love spoon

Love spoon

Today, young men give chocolates or flowers to show that they like a girl. But imagine how it was centuries ago.

Shops didn't sell chocolates and flowers, so to give a girl something you had to make it. Some men made cakes or sweets, but some gave a special gift, a love spoon. After a hard day's work, young men would spend hours carving a spoon to give to a girl. By accepting the spoon, the girl would show that she was interested in the young man.

What do some traditional patterns mean?

Heart One heart = the girl owns the young man's heart

Two hearts = the two people love each other

Wheel / Spade = the young man is ready to work for the sake of his girlfriend

Key, Keyhole, House = the girl owns the key to the young man's heart

Anchor = the young man shows that he has reached the place where he wants to stay, as if a ship had arrived in port

Bells = the carver wants to hear the church bells. That is, he wants to marry the girl.

Leaves, flowers = the two lovers are going to grow together

Shield = the young man is ready to protect the girl

Birds = lovebirds

Diamond, Horseshoe = good luck

Chain = fertility, loyalty. Number of links = number of children the carver would like

Small Balls in a cage = the number of children the carver would like to have.

Nowadays, people buy love spoons as a gift for people who are getting married. Tourists also love buying love

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